About the Contributors
Lincoln H. Blumell
Lincoln H. Blumell is a Full Professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Calgary, University of Oxford, and University of Toronto. He specializes in Early Christianity and Greek and Coptic papyrology and epigraphy.
S. Kent Brown
S. Kent Brown is an emeritus professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University (BYU) and a former director of the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. In the world of documentary films, he was the executive producer for Journey of Faith, Journey of Faith: The New World, and Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God. He and his wife, Gayle, have five children, twenty-five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
Tad R. Callister
Born in 1945 in Glendale, California, Elder Tad R. Callister was an attorney, pursuing a career that grew out of his education at BYU, UCLA, and New York University. After serving as a missionary, bishop, stake president, regional representative, and mission president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he was called to be a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy in 2008 and was later appointed to the Presidency of the Seventy. He was released from that calling in April 2014 and was sustained as the twenty-first Sunday School General President, helping the Church to launch the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. He authored three books: The Blueprint of Christ’s Church, The Infinite Atonement, and The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration. He and his wife, Kathryn, are the parents of six children.
Richard D. Draper
Richard D. Draper is an emeritus professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU and a former graduate coordinator and associate dean of Religious Education. For the BYU New Testament Commentary series, he and Michael Rhodes authored the volumes on First and Second Corinthians, First and Second Thessalonians, Hebrews, and Revelation. He and his wife, Barbara, are the parents of six children and the grandparents of sixteen grandchildren.
John Gee
John Gee is the William (Bill) Gay Research Professor in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at BYU. He has published on New Testament philology, economics, social institutions, textual criticism, historical authenticity, and the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament. He is working on the commentary for the Epistle of James in the BYU New Testament Commentary series.
John F. Hall III
The late John F. Hall (1951–2023) earned his BA from BYU, his MA from Princeton University, and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in ancient Roman studies from the time of the Etruscans to the reign of Augustus. At his retirement, he was a professor of Classics and Ancient History at BYU, where he was the Eliza R. Snow University Fellow. At his death, he was survived by three sons, six grandchildren, and his wife, Dena.
Eric D. Huntsman
Eric D. Huntsman received his BA in classical Greek and Latin from BYU and his MA and PhD in ancient history from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the BYU faculty in 1994 in the Department of Classics and Ancient History. He transferred to Religious Education in 2003 and became a full professor of Ancient Scripture in 2015, serving from 2012 to 2021 as the coordinator of the Ancient Near Eastern Studies program in the Kennedy Center and currently serving as the associate director for academics at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies (since 2022). He and his wife, Elaine, are the parents of two children, Rachel and Samuel.
Kelsey Draper Lambert
Kelsey Lambert (BYU ’05) received a master’s degree in English from Indiana University and worked as a writer in high tech for sixteen years. She currently manages technical writers at Salesforce, focusing on engineering and security documentation. She works from her home office in Midway, Utah.
David J. Larsen
David J. Larsen received a BA in Near East studies from BYU, an MA in biblical theology from Marquette University, and a PhD in biblical studies from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. His research interests include Jewish and Christian apocalyptic and mysticism, the Psalms, royal/messianic themes in the Bible and in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and “ascent to heaven” traditions. He currently lives in Charles Town, West Virginia, with his wife, Marluce, and the youngest two of their five children.
Joshua M. Matson
Joshua M. Matson is a scholar of the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls and an assistant professor in Ancient Scripture and the Jerusalem Center at BYU. He received a PhD in religion from Florida State University and has published articles on the Old and New Testaments, with a particular emphasis on the Minor Prophets, the Second Temple period, and the Jewish context of the New Testament. Dr. Matson grew up in Chubbuck, Idaho, and is married to Erin Barnes. They are the parents of four children.
Cecilia M. Peek
Cecilia M. Peek is an associate professor of Classical Studies in BYU’s Department of Comparative Arts and Letters. Her research interests shine light on Hellenistic history, with particular emphasis on Ptolemaic Egypt (especially Cleopatra VII), Roman imperial history, classical historiography, and early Christian history. She received a BA in classics with a minor in German from BYU and an MA and PhD in ancient history and Mediterranean archaeology from the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Peek and her husband, Ken, are the parents of four children.
Tom R. Roberts
Tom R. Roberts holds a BA in theology from Triune Biblical University, a master of theology from Covenant Bible College and Seminary, and a master of divinity and a PhD in theology from Hellenic Orthodox University in Athens, Greece. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies at EUCLID University. Dr. Roberts has published two books, From Sacral Kingship to Sacred Marriage: A Theological Analysis of Literary Borrowing and Divorce and Remarriage: A Middle Eastern View. Dr. Roberts’s articles have appeared in Ancient American, Convergent Streams, and other professional publications; he has presented at Kent State University’s Communal Studies Group conference and at the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology. He has also reviewed books and articles for the Interpreter Foundation.
Brent J. Schmidt
Brent J. Schmidt teaches at BYU–Idaho in the religion and humanities departments. He earned degrees in history and classics from the University of Utah and a PhD in classics from the University of Colorado–Boulder, specializing in philology and late antiquity. He enjoys traveling, skiing, gardening, and studying ancient and modern languages.
Avram R. Shannon
Avram R. Shannon received a BA in ancient Near Eastern studies from BYU, a master’s degree in Jewish studies from the University of Oxford, and a PhD from Ohio State University in Near Eastern languages and cultures, with a graduate interdisciplinary specialization in religions of the ancient Mediterranean. As a longtime student of Rabbinic Judaism, ancient Mediterranean religions, Jewish studies, and ancient biblical interpretation, he focuses his research on idolatry and image worship, Jewish/non-Jewish interactions, tribal and affinity groups, and kingship and priesthood in the ancient world. He and his wife, Thora, are the parents of nine children.
Andrew C. Skinner
Andrew C. Skinner is an emeritus professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU, where he served in various administrative posts, including dean of Religious Education, founding executive director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, and associate director of the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. He is the author or coauthor of twenty-one books and over two hundred articles. He also edited seven volumes and has written much on the New Testament. He is currently working on volumes for the Book of Acts and the Epistle to Philemon for the BYU New Testament Commentary series.
John S. Thompson
John S. Thompson obtained his BA and MA in ancient Near Eastern studies (Hebrew Bible) from BYU and the University of California Berkeley, respectively, and completed a PhD in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania. He was an employee of the Seminaries and Institutes of Religion for twenty-eight years, most recently as a coordinator and institute director in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area. Now a full-time researcher and writer for Scripture Central, he and his wife, Stacey, live in Orem, Utah, where they welcome their nine children and four grandchildren.
John W. Welch
Dr. Welch’s name is synonymous with discoveries such as identifying chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, seeing the Sermon on the Mount in the light of the temple, and understanding the Good Samaritan as an allegory of the Plan of Salvation. With degrees in history, Latin, Greek, and the law, he is well positioned to contribute textual and contextual insights into the Gospel of Matthew, which he is currently working on for the BYU New Testament Commentary series. He and his wife, Jeannie—both of whom are retired BYU faculty members—have recently returned home after teaching religion classes for two academic years as full-time missionaries at BYU–Hawaii.
